Thanks to our veterans

Thank you, Gail. Imagine touring a Europe under Nazi domination...

I hope we again have the freedom to travel soon. Thank you. I'm retired, six years active duty Air Force and another 14 Air National Guard.

Thank you Brad. My dad, still living at 98, was army and served in Metz and Lyon during the war. He was signal Corp.

Thanks. United States Army Security Agency, 1962-1965, but we still don't talk about it.

Grandpa was a medic and ambulance driver in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. Would not talk about it. Any of it. Arrived at Omaha Beach on D-Day plus 5.

He later worked in a glass factory and died of lung cancer from breathing in all of that glass dust. He was only 55 and it was awful.

Jane, if I could go back in time I would like to visit Berlin during the 1936 Olympics.

Big Mike - my uncle was D-Day plus 2. A British tank commander, with an expected lifespan measured in hours if not days. Survived the Bocage, a miracle for a British tank commander (the person who directs the tank, head out of the turret), and survived the war. He'd met Rommel's men before as a Desert Rat in North Africa - el Alamein etc.

Nigel, that is incredible. Would he talk about it? Head out of the turret? I would think a very slim chance of survival. Many a soldier died from a sharpshooter simply by taking a brief glance over the top.

Survived the war... probably a 1 in 50 or 100 odds.

No, Mike he didn't talk about it. Ever.

Three brothers - my father was a Commando in Sicily, Italy, Greece and Yugoslavia, behind the lines mostly; one brother was a tank commander, and the third brother was in the Signal Corps in the march across Germany.

All survived, none spoke about the war. They had all seen horrific things. My father said very little until a couple of years before his death - the UK government paid for veterans to return to a place they were during the war and he returned to Naples and the east coast of Italy and up to Comacchio. He didn't want to go back to Montecassino. Age 80. On his own. He then spoke a little and gave a few talks. He hated the war. Most of the Commandos in his group never made it back, he was one of a few.

My father's family was bombed out of their house in air raids three times during the war.

Nigel, your story is a reminder of how much Europe suffered in both world wars(something I realized during my second trip to Europe and Russia in 1990) and how fortunate civilians in the States were compared to those in most of Europe.

ah, forgot to mention. When my father's family was bombed out, it wasn't in a big city like London, it was in a provincial town in the Cotswolds - Cheltenham.

From what I can gather the video series Band of Brothers is about as accurate a version as any.

My family has a long history of military service. I have a several times great grandfather who fought in the American Revolution. My great grandfather fought for the north in the American Civil War. My father was in the US Navy during WWII and was in the Pacific on the USS Dixie. I served stateside in the US Army during Desert Storm (my army years were 1987-1991).

My heartfelt thanks goes out to all the veterans of all nationalities who have ensured our freedom. Especially those of WWII. I feel that they truly saved the world.

MaryC, quite the honorable lineage.

As a Canadian, our war time participation is different again, but no less touched. It is a time that needs to be remembered. In deed, here we call it Remembrance Day. With it, was adversity and then the repair that happened afterwards. Some never 'repaired'. And of course, Canadians were recipients of children sent here to be away from the bombing. Sadly, they were sometimes free child labour. There is a lot of fall out from these world wars and this is my reason to not let them be forgotten...definitely those who fought - but also those who sufffered and those who persevered. Unfortunately, humans are poor at learning from their mistakes.
@ Nigel, I watched a touching movie - dated now - but in it I was surprised to hear how long rationing continued in the UK. In fact, if I recall correctly, at my age 10(@1967) a family came from Leeds to Canada and even then there were things not attainable.
The movie is 84 Charing Cross Road with Anthony Hopkins. It is based on 1970 book that relates a 20 year correspondence between an American woman and a British bookstore owner. Even in the 50s she sent care packages to he and his family due to lack of access. I haven't read the book, but the movie was wonderful.